The present invention relates as indicated to hair-curling apparatus.
A form of hair-curling apparatus in widespread use is the type generally known as hair-curling tongs. During the initial stages of development of these tongs, they were heated by a fixed flame or by means of mains electricity. This obviously restricted the portability of the apparatus and essentially confined the same to home use.
My British Pat. No. 1,326,121 discloses an electrically heated curling apparatus constructed for portability through the use of an energy source comprising electrical storage cells. The metal tong portion was removably mounted in one end of the handle of the apparatus when in the operative position, and engaged contacts in the adjacent end of the handle. Current from the electrical storage cells was thereby established for heating the tong portion. Following use of the tong, the same could be removed from the handle, reversed upon itself, and reinserted through the handle to a storage position.
Although my prior patent curling apparatus has proved generally satisfactory, it does possess certain disadvantages. The heating element in my earlier form comprised a resistance element in coil form electrically connected at one end to the tong portion and at its other end to a contact pin in electrical contact with the storage cells through the body of the tong portion. This arrangement presented certain manufacturing difficulties and also produced relatively inefficient heating due to the presence of air pockets within the tong which act as thermal insulators. Moreover, the breaking or cracking of one cross-sectional area of the resistance element rendered the device inoperable. Still further, there was no provision for recharging the storage cells thereby placing a fixed life span on the apparatus dependent on the life span of the storage cells, or requiring periodic replacement of the cells.